Aug 31

Foursquare tells you when you’ll be mayor

By Josh Martin Check-in, Mobile, Social Media View Comments

If you use Foursquare, you probably know how mayorships work (the person that checks-in the most days than anyone else at a venue is crowned the mayor). However, it was always a mystery of how many check-ins were needed to dethrone the mayor. A few months ago, I blogged about an application, WhenWillIBeMayor.com, that told you how many more check-ins you needed to become mayor.

Foursquare recently launched a new feature that now tells you how many days you’re away from becoming the Mayor when you check-in to a venue. I noticed this new feature the other day when I checked-in to Schlotzsky’s Deli. I got the notice that I was only 3 days away from becoming the Mayor.

Several venues have special offers and rewards for mayors, so this new feature will be helpful for those users who are battling for mayorships at popular venues.

Even with the launch of Facebook Places, Foursquare continues to grow (they recently surpassed the 3 million user mark this week). I started using Facebook Places to check-in the day it launched, but after using it for a few days, I’ve been really disappointed. In comparison, Foursquare is much more entertaining and user friendly than Facebook Places.

What do you think of this new feature within Foursquare? Are you using Foursquare instead of Facebook Places?

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Aug 30

How to update your privacy for Facebook Places

By Josh Martin Check-in, Facebook, Social Media View Comments

It’s now been over a week since Facebook launched their location-based product, Places. If you’re looking for a good resource on Facebook Places, check out Tomer Tishgarten’s essential guide for marketers and developers on his blog.

Privacy seems to always be a hot topic with any new update from Facebook (big surprise). With Facebook Places, several of the settings are already enabled that you might not be aware of. Below are some common questions you might have about Facebook Places and steps you can take to update your privacy settings.

How can I control who can see the Places I’ve visited?

Similar to how you can control who can see your posts, photos, etc., you can customize who can see your check-ins. Go to the main Privacy Settings page and click the “Customize settings” link. Select the drop-down menu next to “Places I check in.” From there, you can decide who gets to see your check-ins, whether it be everyone, or just friends, or a customized list of friends.

How can I control whether I appear in the “People Here Now” list?

At each Place page within Facebook, there is a “People Here Now” section that lists those Facebook users who have checked in. So, if you checked in to a Starbucks, you could see a list of people who have are there now and they wouldn’t necessarily be your Facebook friends. You can enable or disable your inclusion in “People Here Now” after you check in at a Place by navigating to the main Privacy Settings page and clicking the “Customize settings” link at the bottom of the page. From there, just uncheck the “Enable” box next to “Include me in People Here Now after I check in” if you do not want to be included in this list.

What if I don’t want my friends checking me in to Places?

Only your confirmed friends on Facebook are allowed to tag you at a Place, but you can adjust this setting. To do this, just go to the main Privacy Settings page and clicking the “Customize settings” link at the bottom of the page. Then, simply choose “Disabled” in the dropdown box next to “Friends can check me into Places.”

How concerned are you with your privacy when using Facebook Places? Do you plan on (or have you) disabling most of these features?

If you have further questions about Facebook Places, check out their Places FAQ page.

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Aug 25

“Tune out” your Facebook friends with Altoids

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Games, Social Media View Comments

Altoids, yes the breath mints, has launched a genius application that allows you to create a list of a few of your Facebook friends (those who matter the most) and tune out everyone else. This app has perfect timing as it seems everyone is complaining about how their news feed is filled with unwanted updates (now including Places check-ins) from friends.

The Tune Out app is available for iPhones, iPads, and a desktop app can also be downloaded from the Altoids Facebook Page on the Tune Out tab. The app is very easy to setup. Once you download the app, you will be prompted to login to Facebook so the app can access your list of friends. From there, just search for those special friends that you want to add to your list. Once your list is complete, you will only be able to see updates from these friends when using the Tune Out app.

I did learn that the app will automatically post notifications. Below is what was posted to the News Feed once I authorized the app. I was hoping to use this app in secret, but it broadcasts a message to your friends that you have decided to “tune out” some of them.

The iPhone app is slick. When you click on one of your friends within the list, it pulls in their activity in a nice, clean format. You can also use this app with Twitter.

What do you think of this app? Would you use it?

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Aug 20

E-commerce sites benefiting from Facebook “Like” buttons

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Since the announcement of the new social plugins back in April, Facebook has encouraged websites to add the “Like” button, which allows users to instantly share content with their friends. As of July, over 350,000 websites have implemented the “Like” button within their site.

In the past month, several e-commerce websites have placed “Like” buttons throughout their pages, including Best Buy and eBay. eBay has actually attributed part of their $2.2 billion in revenue last quarter to Facebook’s “Like” button. The Like button has been added to eBay’s Daily Deals and Fashion Vault promotions. According to Julie Haddon, Senior Director of Social Media and Integrated Marketing at eBay, “Facebook plug-ins are some of the best marketing tools going right now. We can’t ignore the opportunity to reach 500 million people.”

The “Like” button is proving to be really powerful for e-commerce sites. Shoppers are able to instantly share a product or special deal to their network of friends, which could encourage them to buy. The “Like” button can be helpful for the casual shopper as well. Imagine shopping for a pair of jeans on Levi’s website. If you’re undecided on which pair of jeans to buy, you’ve got the tally of “Likes” from the Facebook community to help you decide.

What are your thoughts on “Like” buttons on e-commerce sites? Will we see more integration with Facebook and e-commerce in the future?

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Aug 19

Check-in on Facebook with Places

By Josh Martin Check-in, Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Facebook has finally launched their long-awaited location-based product, called Places. With this new product, you will now have the option to share your location by “checking in” to that place and letting friends know where you are. You can also see if any of your friends have checked in nearby.

To start using Places, you can use it by downloading the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. Non iPhone users can access Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation.

If you’ve used other location-based services, such as Foursquare and Gowalla, then you’ll have no problem using Places. Checking-in works the same way. All you need to do is tap the “Check In” button on the iPhone app and you’ll see a list of places near your current location. From there, you can choose the place that matches where you are or add it if it’s not listed. After checking in, your check-in will create a story in your friends’ News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that particular place.

Just like you can tag your friends in photos and status updates, you can also tag your friends who are with you at a location. What about privacy? Facebook appeared to be a little more prepared to tackle the privacy issues and provided more controls for users. You have the option of whether or not to share your location when you check in at a place. When you check in, you can tag friends who are with you but only if their settings allow it. When you are tagged, you are always notified (similar to how you’re notified on a photo tag or status update tag).

All check-in activity/history will reside on a new Facebook Place Page. Similar to Foursquare/Gowalla, each place or venue will have it’s own dedicated page. If you’re the owner of that business, there is a process that you can go through to claim your place (see screenshot below). If you claim the location as your business, it will become a Facebook Page or you can merge it with your existing Facebook Page.

Places will be rolled out gradually to users in the U.S. and will be made available to other countries and platforms in the future. What do you think of Facebook Places? Will you use it?

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Aug 12

Purchase flights on Facebook with Delta

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Media View Comments

You can purchase flowers on Facebook and now you can book a flight. Delta Air Lines has launched an application on their Facebook Page that allows you to find, book, and share flights (and you don’t have to leave Facebook).

The app, called The Delta Ticket Window, aims to keep users on the Delta Facebook Page for the entire booking process. I played around with the app a little and it works nicely. As far as I’m aware, it’s the first airline to isolate the booking process inside a Facebook Page.

I was surprised to see that the Delta Facebook Page has little over 34,000 fans. I imagine this new feature will help increase their fan base. It will be interesting to see how many users actually use this app to book their travel and share with their network of friends. What do you think of this app? Would you book a flight on Facebook?

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Aug 10

FarmVille, still the most popular Facebook game!?!

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Games, Social Media View Comments

Can you believe that FarmVille continues to be the most popular game on Facebook? FarmVille currently has around 60 million monthly active users. Back in February, FarmVille had a total of 83 million users, so it has seen a decline over the past few months, but it’s still maintained the top spot among games. Why do you think FarmVille has been able to be the most popular game for so long?

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been a player of the game (I would be ashamed though if I was this guy). I think most Facebook users have either a love or hate relationship with the farming application. And there are some that experiment and just quit. Regardless of what you think of the game, the stats are impressive. Millions of users are spending countless hours playing the game and spending money on “virtual goods” for their farm. Sources claim that FarmVille maker, Zynga, is doing well over $1 million in revenue a day! It’s a model that other developers are scrambling to duplicate, for obvious reasons.

Below are the top 25 Facebook Games for the month of August, with Zynga dominating the top 7. Do you play any of these games? Which are your favorite?

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Aug 09

Facebook Page Changes: Removing Boxes & Adjusting Tab Width

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Beginning on August 23rd, Facebook will be removing application boxes and reducing the width of application tabs. These changes were announced back in October of last year, and after months of delays, it looks like Facebook is ready to roll out these new changes.

According to Facebook’s Developer Blog, below are the details of the changes:

  • Boxes. We will notify users via messaging in profile boxes and in the Help Center that the “Boxes” tab, boxes on profiles and Pages, and application info sections will be going away.
  • Application Tabs. Next week, we will give Page admins the ability to preview their custom tabs in the new 520 pixel width so they can modify their layouts as needed. All profile and Page tabs will be resized automatically beginning the week of August 23.

This news is important to developers and admins that manage Facebook Pages. It’s important to be ready for these adjustments and avoid elements of your Facebook Page being broken.

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Aug 06

Is Shopkick the future of check-ins?

By Josh Martin Mobile, Social Media View Comments

Foursquare and Gowalla, two of the more popular check-in applications, have received a lot of attention from marketers, but there has always been the problem of fake check-ins. For example, I can check-in to a Starbucks using both apps without really going into the store. If you’re trying to offer some sort of reward for check-ins, this can become a problem.

We’re now seeing a movement toward a new set of check-in apps that are able to verify that you’re actually in the store. One of those apps, called Shopkick, rewards you for doing nothing but just walking into a store.

The Shopkick app tries to make sure no one can game the check-in system. Shopkick is able to tell when you walk into a store and more importantly, where you are in the store. How does this work? There is actually a Shopkick signal that is installed in the retail stores that is able to determine when a user walks through the door and even what sections of the store. According to a recent TechCrunch article, you’ll soon be able to use Shopkick when you shop at Best Buy.

What do you think of the Shopkick app? Do you think this will be the future of how we check-in?

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Aug 05

Wave Goodbye to Google Wave

By Josh Martin Google, Social Media View Comments

It looks like the road has ended for Google Wave (a web application for real-time communication and collaboration). In a blog post yesterday, Google stated that they “don’t plan to continue developing Google Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year.”

I was surprised and disappointed to learn that Google was pulling the plug on Wave. The DIG team at Engauge started using Google Wave early on and we’ve used it for a variety of purposes (we even delivered a proposal to one of our clients through Google Wave). There were a few interesting case studies from brands that used Google Wave (and even some funny ways of using the application).

I remember when Wave was only available by invitation only that the demand was high to get access. Back in May, Google announced that anyone could use Wave and no invitation was needed. However, it doesn’t look like Wave caught on with the masses. According to the blog post, “Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked.” Personally, I like Google Wave much better than Google Buzz (wonder if Google will pull the plug on Buzz next?).

Why didn’t Google Wave take off? Too complicated? Just another website for someone to check? If it was integrated into Gmail, rather than Buzz, do you think that would have helped?

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